Team Selection

Goes over the ins and outs of selecting your team and what attributes to look for in different positions.

Below is a breakdown of the specific traits I think are important to look for in each of the positions available for selection; Forward, Midfielder, Defender, and Goalkeeper. For every site I know of you get an allotted amount of money to spend on players, and each player is assigned a specific value.

Goalkeepers

With goalkeepers there is the easy way, and the hard way to get points. The easy way is picking the goalkeeper with the team that has the best odds of winning. You'll likely get the win points (5 on DK, 6 on StatClash), as well as a good chance at clean sheet points (5) or 1 goal against points (2). The hard way is to try and find a tougher fixture where you can get a ton of save points. The best fixtures for this are heavily defensive teams, like Stoke or Burnley, playing at home vs tough opposition. It can be a bit a roll of the dice, but when it comes off you can expect big point halls, especially if they can eek out a 1-0 win. Note that the latter strategy can be extremely effective vs some of the better teams with suspect backlines.

Defenders

Fullbacks (outside defenders) are going to be your bread and butter when it comes to daily fantasy, and the more attack minded the better. The reason for this is because crosses (1) can net you such easy points. Most teams will typically favor attacking down on flank so it is best to pick the defender who occupies that side. You will typically want to pair one of your defenders with a goalkeeper as this is a great way to get a reliable point haul with Clean Sheets (5) or 1 goal against points (2). The other thing to consider is defenders that are big set piece threats. Unfortunately most of the defenders that are set piece threats are center backs and won't get you the consistent point generation from crosses.

Curious case of Leighton Baines

This young man gets his own section because he is the primary set piece taker for Everton, including penalties. The downside is that Everton's defense is woeful this year so it can be high risk, high reward. If Everton gets their defense problems behind them Baines will probably be an auto selection anytime Everton have decent fixtures, and possibly could become fixture proof.

Note: Kolarov from Man City to a lesser extent deserves a mention here as he is almost an auto select as well.

Midfielders

First and foremost you should typically avoid defensive midfielders. The reason behind this is they won't find themselves in scoring positions as often. Also on StatClash you get penalized for fouls committed/yellow cards and much of the time defensive midfielders will be fouling to break up transitions. One good choice for midfielders will be those playing the 10 role, which means they will be lined up in the middle of the pitch behind the striker. This is a role typically reserved for the playmaker/creative type player so expect to get a lot of assist points due to them being the offensive hub of the team. The other great option for midfielders resides in wingers. Much of the time you can get midfielders who are playing so far up the pitch they are practically forwards, this is especially true in 4-2-3-1 formations. Other things to look for are players who put in a lot of crosses, inverted wingers who are creative/tricky, and set piece takers.

Forwards

Having your forwards produce goals is a must. If your forwards are a bust you are going to have a rough gameweek. Look for high scoring sides with home fixtures, or teams that have a fixture against a side with a really poor defensive record. The latter of the two is where you will find your best value picks as you can get players on mid tier sides playing vs poor defensive teams for fairly cheap. Some good stats to look for is players that tend to have a lot of shots on target, but not necessarily a lot of goals. These players will be under priced since they haven't been producing, but the stats back up the idea that they might be running under expectation. On the flip side it may not be a bad idea to avoid players that have been converting their shots on goal at an unusually high right, this is especially true when they are on the road vs strong defensive teams. Right now Diego Costa and Leonardo Ulloa are good examples of this as any conversion rate over %30 is typically unsustainable and they are scoring at over a %40 clip of their shots on goal.

Player Rotation and Lineups

One last thing that needs to be covered is tracking starting XI's. It might seem like an obvious thing to think about, but soccer lineups more than other sport tend to fluctuate game to game. This is especially true for top tier teams that are playing multiple competitions. You will often see situations where a top player is sat versus a weaker side because that team had or has a game in the champions league during the week. I expect this to happen quite often to Diego Costa as he has been proven injury prone in the past. I will try to post starting XI's on the front page with my twitter widget, but you can always search twitter for them or go to RotoWorld as they typically have a post with them.